How does automatic reloading work?

If you regularly travel by public transport and you don't want to queue to reload your card, automatic reloading is the solution. With automatic reloading, you will always have sufficient credit to use your OV-chipkaart. You can choose from a reloading amount of € 10, € 20 or € 50. Automatic reloading is only possible in combination with a personal OV-chipkaart.

When will your card be reloaded?

Your card will be automatically reloaded when checking in or out. This also happens if you do not have enough credit to pay the boarding fare or journey price. Your card will then be reloaded immediately with your chosen amount. So you can simply check in, even if there is little or no credit on your card. As soon as you hold your card to a post or gate, your credit will be uploaded. If your journey costs less than the amount with which your card was reloaded, the remaining credit will be returned to your card.

When are amounts collected?

We lend you the amount with which the card is uploaded. This amount is then debited from your account within fifteen days. On your bank statement, you can see which date the amount was reloaded onto your OV-chipkaart. You can compare this reloading date with your travel details. You can do this under My Public Transport Travel History. Here you can also see what happened to the credit. Your statement also indicates another date: the debit date. This is the date on which we debited the amount from your account.

Example Dutch bank statement

Reloaded multiple times

So there are a number of days between credit being added to your card and the debit from your bank account. Your card may have been automatically reloaded more than once in the meantime. Your card can also be automatically reloaded twice in succession. This can happen if you have a reloading amount of €10 and you travel on NS. This is in order to deduct the boarding fare of € 20. Read more about boarding fares.

Online application

Automatic reloading is possible in combination with a personal OV-chipkaart. You will provide a single iDEAL authorisation through a payment of € 0.01. You then need to take your OV-chipkaart to a pick-up device to add automatic reload to your card. (You can do this from 15 minutes after your application.)

Apply for automatic reloading online and add it to your card at a pick-up device. From then on you will always have sufficient credit!